Promised land on the horizon?

Well the busy Christmas period is over, and it is a time which can make or break a season for any club. Thankfully for Bristol City we have come through this intense time with only one defeat to our name, and that came away against West Brom, arguably the best team in the league. We find ourselves sitting in joint first place alongside West Brom and Watford, all on 47 points after 26 games.

The media have continually mentioned about when the ‘bubble’ will burst and in the beginning I thought this too, but something now tells me this won’t happen. We have shown already we can bounce back from severe defeats as we did at Barnsley (3-0), the 6-0 drubbing at Ipswich, and recently at West Brom when we were on the wrong end of a 4-1 score line.

The team spirit created by Gary Johnson means the players don’t dwell too long on a defeat and refocus their minds quickly on the next fixture. We are taking each game as it comes and as a result have not become unnerved by the new teams we are facing.

Although there are still 20 league games to play I am starting to believe we can sustain our current form and maybe make it to the promise land. Sceptics may say it is too soon for City to get promoted after only coming up from League One five months ago, but when a great opportunity comes along you have to grab it with both hands.

The money we would receive would be welcome even if we were to be relegated back to the Championship. Promotion is worth in the region of £60 million and with parachute payments of about £20 million it would do us no harm financially.

The club are already looking to the future with the capture of exciting attacking midfielder Nick Carle, an Australian International who we have paid £500,000 for from Turkish side Genclerbirligi. Having seen a video of him on the internet, he looks an exciting player with many fancy skills and he certainly knows where the goal is.

2007 has now come to an end and many football supporters in Bristol didn’t want it to end after such a successful year for both Bristol clubs in which both were promoted. Hopefully 2008 will be even more exciting and my next blog will be describing a City victory over Middlesbrough in the F.A Cup on Saturday.

ANDY DAVIES

FGR do Gloucestershire proud

Gloucestershire ‘village’ side Forest Green Rovers may not have won at the County Ground on Saturday afternoon. They may not have even won a place in Sunday’s FA Cup Third Round draw, but what they did win was the respect of the Swindon Town fans.

The weather for the game was typical cup tie weather. Drizzle soon turned into showers as I queued for a bus to the train station…only to find that the 12:46 train to Swindon had been cancelled for some reason. Fortunately there was a free bus to Swindon from Cheltenham, that took from 1:10pm to 2:50pm.

So I was already a bit late getting there. On my way to the stand I noticed a few hundred bank notes (presumably fake or I would probably have picked them up myself!) scattered over the floor saying "take your payoff and go". Unfortunately I couldn’t dwell on it too much as I had a game to get to.

Now anyone who has had the pleasure of being an away supporter at Swindon, will know that they are seated in the Stratton Bank, which is an uncovered area behind the goal….and although I had a coat, and a jumper on, I had no hood, so I was hardly shielded from the elements. I envied all the Forest Green fans wrapped up warm in their hats and scarves.

At half time, Swindon led 1-0, JP McGovern scoring direct from a corner. The first half wasn’t particularly noteworthy; despite the rain the sun was shining in the away fans faces, and it was difficult to see where exactly the ball was without getting a blinding headache.

What FGR boss Jim Harvey said to the non-leaguers at half time must have worked though. About ten minutes in, Stuart Fleetwood scored, followed by a crazy celebration in which half the team did Klinsmann dives one after the other. A word on Fleetwood before I go on by the way….that was his 24th goal this season. Compare that to the entire Derby County team who have scored a total of…five.

Most strikers would be proud to have scored two dozen goals in all competitions in May never mind early December. Just as Forest Green fans thought it couldn’t get any better, it did, Mark Beesley heading in a cross, and the away fans went wild. Only 24 minutes to hold on!

Ok…so they tried to hold on for the win, and it failed. Former Plymouth player Hasney Aljofree headed in a cross from the left, and the Rovers looked as though Rovers would have to make do with a replay.

Except they didn’t even manage that, because with minutes to go, substitute and general daddy’s boy Blair Sturrock scored a rebound from Billy Paynter’s saved shot, to send Swindon into the hat.

Despite coming so close, and missing out, the population of Nailsworth will have their heads held high tonight, after pushing the former Premiership side all the way, and almost pulling off another upset. I must confess I was already planning a trip to the New Lawn for the replay but alas it wasn’t to be and thoughts can carry on to the League, and the FA Trophy.


JAMES LEWIS